Sheryl Crow discusses Michael Jackson abuse allegations: “It's just tragic”

Michael Jackson, Wade Robson. photo: HBOBefore she was a famous musician in her own right, Sheryl Crow was a backup singer on Michael Jackson’s Bad Tour from 1987 to 1989. Now, in a new interview with U.K.’s The Guardian, she’s speaking out about this year’s controversial Leaving Neverland HBO documentary, focusing on two men who claim MJ sexually abused them as children.

“It’s like a death in the family, you know?” she says. “It’s sad.”

She says she remembers one of the accusers from the documentary, James Safechuck.

“[Safechuck] was a great kid and the whole time he was with us – which was the better half of an 18-month tour – I always wondered: ‘What in the world are his parents doing?’, you know?” she says.

As for whether she suspected something inappropriate was going on, she says, “I think that there were a lot of exceptions made because of the damage that [Jackson] … I mean, he didn’t intentionally project it, but it was part of his aura – this almost being untouchable and almost alien-like [figure].”

Sheryl adds, “And, yeah, I mean, I’m sad, and I’m mad at a lot of people. I feel like there was just a huge network of people that allowed all that to go on. It’s just tragic.”

After she became famous as a solo star, she says she didn’t have any further contact with Jackson.

“Never. I saw him at the Grammys and I don’t think he ever put together [who I was],” she says.

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